BARRE, VERMONT -- I spoke with the company on the phone to make an appointment. The only appointments that had available were Sunday, when I try not to transact any business, and a week from Monday in the middle of the afternoon. My wife and I both needed to be there, so we rescheduled our time, and waited the week and a half that was required. I get it, it's tax season. The day of the appointment, I had to leave a meeting with my boss, his boss, and the VP of our organization to be there on time. My wife and I met there, we were 10 minutes early. We try to be early, to be respectful of the people we're meeting with.

Our appointment was for 3:00. At 3:15, after we'd been waiting 25 minutes, I asked the ladies working the desk what the expected delay was. It *is* tax season, and I get it. A short delay is fine, but we already had to wait a week and a half for this appointment, and we had other appointments for work that we had to keep too. They told me that there wasn't an expected delay, and seemed surprised that Kevin, the guy who had been preparing our taxes for the past 3 years was taking so long with his 2:00 o'clock appointment.

At 3:40, Kevin finally comes out and calls us. He passed off being 40 minutes late with an insincere sounding "Nice to meet you, sorry for the delay". He didn't recognize us at all. OK, he might recognize us once he looks at our past returns. I tell him, "You know, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine. My wife and I are both professionals, and we try to respect other people's time, and we expect the same from the people we do business with." He responds with "Would you like to speak with my boss?" I ask, "Do you think that's really necessary?" Apparently he feels it is. He goes and gets her. We spend another 5 minutes or so, of the 20 we have left in the hour waiting for "Penny" the owner to appear. She comes out eventually, and instead of being professional and explaining the situation calmly and rationally, she asks; "Do you want your taxes filed here today? Because, Kevin isn't going to work with you." I say "All I said to him was that my wife and I are both professionals and we expect the same from the people we do business with." She begins to bark at me about how they're doing the best they can, and Kevin works 12 hours a day, and put in over 100 hours last week. I say, "so did I." Because it's true, that's my day-to-day routine sometimes. This only makes her more furious, and she asks again if we want our return done there, because it's really not that important to her. At this point I say, "No, I think we're done here." and "Thanks for wasting an hour of our day". The capper comes when this woman who has been yelling and barking at us (we're the customer in this scenario, which apparently she had forgotten) says "Well, *YOU* need to learn to treat people with respect".

Apparently, treating people with respect means being 40 minutes late for your appointment, and then barking at people and telling *them* how rude *they* are. In any event, if you need your taxes done in Barre, Vermont, please remember that the H&R block location there is understaffed, and overworked, and in the interests of not having them work 12 hour days, please be respectful of their time, and take your taxes someplace else. Your business just isn't that important to them.

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H&R Block's Emerald Card is a ripoff!!!

Posted by nocarmar on 04/02/2010

If you go to H&R Block to do your taxes, know this:

1) Most people will get turned down for a Refund Anticipation Loan(RAL), but that's just fine for H&R Block, because the refund will automatically default into a regular 8-15 day refund. Be careful, because the H&R tax representative might not tell you this. In my case, the tax rep called me the following day to say that the bank had declined my request for a RAL. (The reason was because I owed the IRS a late fee from the 2009 year.)

Since I didn't want to pay all this money ($169.64) for the regular 8-15 day refund, I told the tax rep to cancel my refund. That's when he horrified me by saying that it already had gone through. You see, when a RAL gets declined, it just means you don't have to pay the 6.95 RAL fee. Everything else stays the same, which means I've now paid $169.64 and STILL have to wait 8-15 days to get my refund. (When I was in the office the day before, he'd told me that I would have 5 days to cancel the RAL transaction, which was why I didn't sweat it. But when I tried to cancel, he told me that the 5-day rule only applies to the RAL itself, not the regular 8-10 day refund.) In other words, I was taken. Scammed.

2) When it turned into a regular refund, I was now stuck paying all this money for something that I could have done for FREE through state tax prep assistance or efiling! So my advice is to just go to turbotax.com, which is easy, faster, and best of all, cheaper (about $30) than H&R Blockhead. (Remember, unless you are getting a RAL, you won't get your taxes any sooner by going to H&R Block. The IRS doesn't care who prepared your taxes or how much you paid to have them done!)

3) Rather than direct deposit, the H&R Block tax rep offered me an Emerald Card, which was just another way for them to bleed me to death. This card was a freaking headache! Of course I asked for direct deposit, but he (the H&R tax rep) said this was how they disburse the refunds. What he didn't tell me was that H&R will charge you about $1.95 for each time you use it at an ATM, plus you will still have to pay the bank's ATM fee (and it doesn't matter if you use your own bank's ATM because you aren't using that bank's card.) Chase charged me three dollars, so I paid a total of $4.95 to withdraw the refund from the Emerald Card via ATM.

4) The contract states: "You will receive only one H&R Block Emerald Prepaid MasterCard and the Card will be in the name of the Primary taxpayer designated above." My name was clearly typed above this statement, yet the Emerald Cards all have "H&R Client" typed on them. They are all pre-stamped this way. My bank wouldn't touch it. Since I couldn't take the refund out of the card through the teller window, I had to go to the ATM, and pay the fees (see #3).

Yes, I was foolish for agreeing to pay so much for a RAL in the first place, but I was in a situation where getting that money in 1-2 days would have prevented a lot of other problems for me. But it only made me sink deeper into debt. I just want others to learn from this horrible experience. Thanks for reading!

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Tax Preparer made a mistake on my 2010 Tax Returns

Posted by RITA on 04/15/2012

Rating: 1/51

CALIFORNIA -- Tax preparer at the Fremont office on Mowry ave made a mistake on my 2010 federal and state tax returns she filed me as married and filing joint and I am single. She had put Robert Jones on my tax returns. I received some forms and a letter from the IRS on December 19th 2011 stating (why are you getting this notice?) and you must return the response form by January 18th 2012. This notice stated that I owed the IRS 801.00 for not reporting this extra income on my taxes for the year 2010. I then had to fill out the response form which read check only one of three options. than go to step B check the applicable payment options. So I picked option 3 I like to request a payment plan to pay the tax I owed and fill out the installment agreement request and enter the amount you can pay each month and mail it back before January 19th 2012. I made an appt with the person who did my taxes in 2010, I then informed her that she made a mistake on my 2010 tax returns and told her I now owe the IRS 801.OO. I than gave her all the letters that I've been receiving from the IRS she liked them over than she said to me all we have to do is file a amendment which I did and after she was done she said to me now you owe to federal is 1,467.00 and to state 130.00 I told her I owe them nothing your the one who made the mistake I should not have to owe the IRS any money. Going back to the amendment she had typed in that the taxpayer made a mistake and filed married and joint and wants to change to single. I told her that is a lie I made an appt with you today to let you know about the mistake she made than she deleted that and typed in that the tax preparer made a mistake filed married and filing joint. than she looked at me and said is that better in a very mean tone. She did not want to type that she had made the mistake. And than for her to (TYPE) lie and blame me for her mistake is unacceptable. I need to know how H & R BLOCK is going to resolve this matter of paying the IRS. Please get back to me asap.

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Handling of Income Tax PreparationPerson

Posted by lint on 03/28/2010

IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- On February 8, 2010 at 9:00 A.M. we had an appointment with H&R Block office in Iowa Falls, Iowa. On Saturday we took our income tax papers that we had prepared to their office and left them with the receptionist stating that we had heard a big blizzard was approaching our area and at our ages 90 and 80 years of old we would not tackle the highway conditions on Monday should a blizzard occur. That did happen. We had an appointment with Cynthia McDonald, Chief #14159662583643, who has previously handled our account the past four years. Now, I have been an avid customer of H&R Block for over twenty years, starting in Bentonville, AR. but never have I received the handling of my income tax this year in this fashion. We assumed she would use our time slot to compute our tax, everything was in exact order as she had received in prior years. On Feb. 16th I suffered a massive heart attack and was hospitalized for eight days. My wife, Mary, called over to H&R Block in Iowa Falls, Iowa to see if the tax papers had been completed, they HAD NOT. Finally, on Feb. 24, 2010, Cynthia called our home at 4:30 P.M. to inform us that the taxes were completed, our fee was $275.00 and they were to be filed electronically so that we could receive our refund in short fashion. We went to the office on February 25,2010 at 11:30 a. m., my wife, Mary, brought the prepared tax report to the car so that I could the instrument, returned the papers to the person in charged named, Linda, where my wife signed them, she stated the charge, $275.00 and they would be filed electrically and we would have our refund by the 10th March. My wife, Mary, checked with the Ackley State Bank, here in Ackley, Iowa twice during this month of March and no refund. Finally, on March 25th, 2010 at 3:30 P.M. Mary called H&R Block to see if they had filed the tax report, after about ten minutes delay they had checked and the return was still "hanging" on some hook and had not been sent in electrically. The question was asked how could this happen and they reported hesitantly, "Well, it was our mistake not to look". Well, great here I am 90 years old, had a massive heart attack with only 20% functioning, wanting to get my personal matters taken care of and in order and a MISTAKE like this happens in one of your "so-called" functioning offices. We demand to have our money given back to us and to report this so called "slip up" in your office in Iowa Falls, Iowa. As I stated before, I have been a customer with H&R Block for over twenty years, almost thirty years now and never have I had this kind of treatment and happenstance. Linton Rudolph Lehrer and wife Mary Elizabeth Lehrer, 1214 3rd Avenue, Ackley, Iowa 50601 Telephone Number 641-8547-2056.

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To whom it may or may not concern

Posted by Aroara on 05/31/2009

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- On February 20, 2009 my fiancé, Lucas, and I entered your location at O’Connor Road and Nacogdoches Road in San Antonio, Texas to see what your establishment could find for us for my 2008 tax return. We had not used your services before and were eager to determine the outcome. The gentleman at the front desk asked me a short series of questions including my name, status, etc. to which all of my answers were “No.” At the end of the questioning, much to our surprise, a second man chimed in and asked “Do you have a girl-fiend?” Aside from the fact that he was speaking out of turn I found this highly inappropriate and very rude. Apparently, this man thought that he was being hilarious, but I strongly disagree. Even if I HAD a girlfriend when he asked this it would have no relevance to my taxes and that disrespectful line should not be crossed in an allegedly professional environment. This irritated my fiancé, but we chose not to verbalize our position. I suspect this man thought that he could behave this way with me because I look much younger than I am and perhaps he did not see my fiancé and his son sitting in the waiting chairs. Regardless of how old he thinks I may be I am a 23-year-old woman and still a potential customer.
The man at the front desk called a woman perhaps by the name of “Lupita” or something similar to assist us with my taxes. She did not introduce herself to us as I told her our names, but she entered some information and we began. As she typed at her computer entering my information she did not ask us about any deductions we wanted to claim or items we wanted to list. My fiancé asked her why she hadn’t asked us about school items or business mileage and the woman replied that none of those things could be counted and so it did no matter if she entered them in the boxes and on the screen provided for those items. She said the numbers “won’t go anywhere” and ignored our requests. She assured us that she was certain nothing could be counted because they receive new and extensive training every year. This I would have believed if it had not been for the fat that she did not know how to properly fill in the information and had to summon another employee. When this second woman arrived to the desk she also did not introduce herself and they both chatted about me and my information and ignored us sitting in front of them. The second woman left the area and finally we began discussing my schooling for 2008. Something that was particularly odd was this woman asked me if I was in elementary or middle school. I told her that I was in college and an Undergraduate. She went to repeat the word but instead said “undergrown” and began chucking loudly which was more than baffling to me. Again I suspect that your staff felt that they had no need to be respectful to me because of my much-younger-looking appearance. Now this irritated ME, but I did not see how it had become MY responsibility to see that these employees maintain a professional attitude or work ethic.
In closing, the customer service was appalling and needless to say we did not employ your services. Hopefully, you will agree and find that this email should not have had to be written. I will be expecting to hear from you soon to further discuss the events.

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Emerald Advance Card - Advance? Right!

Posted by norefundhere on 02/12/2009

DULUTH, MINNESOTA -- I applied on January 24, 2009 for my refund from my federal return by using H&R Block's TaxCut software on their website. My return was accepted the same day and I set it up to deposit my refund on to my Emerald Advance Master Card through H&R Block. I typed in the routing number and account number and it should have taken 15 days at the most to get the refund back.

The IRS said they deposited the amount on February 6th, 2009. I called H&R Block Emerald Advance Card Member Services several times and I was told twenty different stories, minding you, you have to pay $2.00 each time you TALK to customer service! The charges were wracking up without any reasonable answer given to me. One representative got an attitude with me when I asked for help, stating, "How do you know your refund was supposed to be deposited by now?" Did I mention I waited until the LAST day the refund should have been applied before calling?

I had their customer service, which sounded like it had been out sourced to India, tell me that a.) you never filed your return, b.) oh you did file your return but we're doing 'maintenance' on all of our cards so your return will be deposited in another five days or so, c.)you have to call H&R Block's main phone number (to which those customer service agents said the people I was speaking with were supposed to handle it), d.) you have to call the H&R Block TAxCut software people, e.) you have to call HSBC Bank which handles all refunds (turns out they only handle refunds where you got an ADVANCE from H&R Block which wasn't what I had done and um, I had already told the representative at Emerald Card this information, g.) call this person, call that person.

I spent FOUR hours after a full day of work calling and paying $2.00 each new call trying to get answers and find out where my refund was.

Needless to say, my refund is now going to be mailed to me because they were missing the last two digits of the account number for the deposit. Um, yeah the rest of the account number was right and they have my returned money but they just won't deposit it to my account, I have to wait another 10 business days to get a check in the mail from H&R Block. They won't even return the funds that are SITTING THERE to the IRS.

I'd suggest going to TurboTax which I had done a few years ago and never had problems with, H&R Block's stupid customer service stinks.

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No Way To Describe All The Problems I Had In One Title

Posted by EliseB on 01/15/2009

48858, MICHIGAN -- This is longâ¦ but holy crap the problems
Crossed bank lines, defective cards, regional managers. If you want the dirt here it is.

I had gone to HR Block for the past 7 years. I normally would get my check, no rushâ¦ not a big fan of the advance or anythingâ¦ I didnât mind waiting the couple weeks.

Well in 2007, they enlisted a new policy that if you are to get a check, it is a 20 dollar fee and it may take up to two weeks to printâ¦ thatâs for the advance system with the loan, not the normal standard wait!

But they told me all about this incredible Emerald card in which they would just go ahead and give me that day and I could start spending.

I said OK Iâll try it.

This is where my nightmare began.

I called the hotline the next day because the money still hadnât depositedâ¦.
And the next dayâ¦
And the next dayâ¦ By now Iâm thinking I donât much like their idea of âinstantâ
On the 4th day I call my representative at HR Block, she was going to call me back when she had answers. Two days pass and I call again, she had not gotten a return call yet. So I took time off of work and came into their office. What followed was 3 hours in the back room on hold with my representative waiting to talk to someone who could get the money deposited.

We eventually got through, they manually put the money on the card and that was that.

Or so I thought.

I went immediately to the ATM to swipe it. Nothing. Called back and they said to try another one. I drove go another nad tried again. Nothing.

The card they had given me was not magnetized. I assume it was never activated which is why the money had to be added manually.

So began the process of getting a working card and transferring the money.
What followed was two months of phone tag and frustration.
HR said to call the bank, the bank said to call HR.
The bank said they moved the money, HR said it did not come through.
I went in the office twice (for hours each time) and eventually ranked the attention of the district manager with all of my calls. Who then enlisted the help of the Regional manager.

As it turns out the new card had a routing number issued to it that was not affiliated with HR bank, and my money was sent somewhere completely random, I had to wait for them to retrieve the money it before I got it.
Despite how many times I repeated âI donât care where you sent that money to. I want my money, you track down yours.â
But eventually I got it.

After 3 months of constant phone calls I got my tax return!

With my threats of the Better Business Bureau and getting a lawyer they also agreed to compensate the cost to file and all company charges that went with it.

I had also demanded the interest they accrued while the money was in the bank. Because for the time I waited that could have accrued in my bank.

You see that is the reason for the cards. They have a 300 withdrawal limit. For the money that waits for the next day, they collect interest. It is not a large amount but with all the customers they make a lot!
Needless to say they would not give me the interest. So they still got a profit out of me.

Aside from HR block, last tax season must have been doomed. When I finally got my card I immediately withdrew the max for that day. I then went to have a few cocktails at Applebees with friends to celebrate my victory.
While there, my wallet, with the card in it, was stolen from my purse!
I found my wallet in the parking lot with the HR Block card and my Zales card missing (I left the most of my cash at home and had 40 in my pocket)

I checked the account activity on the card the next day and found that starting right at midnight it had been taken to Grand Rapids, Jackson and over to Detroit over night. (From my home in central Michigan that is well over 8 hours of drive going in that circle) They had hit every liquor store in their path using the card to buy booze, cigarettes, magazines and condoms!

But I do give HR block credit for a very quick response in getting me that money back (another month btw)

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Incompetent Morons

Posted by avenger311 on 03/06/2006

MERCERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA -- H & R Block - Mercersburg, PA. 17236

I decided to file my Federal taxes with H & R Block this year (2006) in order to get a rapid refund. I went to their local branch on February 3rd, 2006. I dropped off the paperwork, and told them I wanted to file "Rapid Refund". I was told that it would be a week or more before they could get to them, but they said "leave the paperwork, and as soon as we can, we'll do it and give you a call. On February 9th they called me, and I came into the office to sign everything. I was to get $465 back. The fee was to be $75 for the paperwork preparation and $29 if I wanted direct deposit of the refund, the amount of the refund would be about $360. I told them that I did not want to have the funds direct deposited, just have the check sent to the office and I would pick it up.

By March the 3rd I had not heard anything from them. I went on-line to IRS.gov and looked up the status of my refund. It said that the funds had been direct deposited on February 24th, and that the amount deposited was only $70. I did some quick math, and realized that the IRS had withheld an amount that I had previously owed, and that the net remainder was $70. I immediately called the Block office and spoke with the manager. I explained to him that it had been over a month since I filled for a "Rapid Refund", and had not heard anything from them, and that the IRS says my refund had already been "deposited". I told him that I had never provided a routing number for any deposit, so how did they direct deposit it, and where was my money? He said that by "deposited", that meant it had been deposited in THEIR account, and that I was responsible for the fee ($29), and that rather than receiving a refund of $70, I actually owed THEM $45! I told him that first of all, I was verbally told by two of the preparers that had worked on my taxes, that since it had taken soooo long for them to do my paperwork (was just a standard return), that there would ONLY be a $25 charge for everything.

I told this to the manager, and he basically called me a liar, since he "knows" his employees would never have told me that. My wife and I had BOTH heard the same thing from both preparers! I asked him how he could possibly be charging me $75 for a "Rapid Refund" also, when it took over a month to get a resolution from the IRS, and then had never bothered to call me? This is HARDLY RAPID!!! He got very nasty with me, and said "Sir, we WILL bill you for this $45, and you WILL pay it. You are wrong and WE are right".

I told him that I would NEVER, EVER do business with ANY H & R Block office again, if this is any example of how screwed up an organization can be!!!!!!!

ONLINE SERVICES, OHIO -- Tried to file online with HR Block....I'm retired but wasn't sure if I still needed to file . My state has a school district double tax ( double because they tax the crap out of us on real estate taxes for schools ) . I selected the free version that only cost 30 dollars and when finished I was told that I had to print and mail the forms to file ..Well, that's why I went there to begin with because I can't print the forms . They didn't even address the school tax issue in Ohio. I'm not even sure what I paid for ..HR Block did basically nothing for that 30 bucks . Now I have to try another way of doing my taxes. Stay away from these money grubbers. There are many tax firms that will complete and file your returns easily and quickly online ..Too bad I chose the worst one.

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- H & R Block (Houston, TX - District 6) has made a concerted effort to remove all black males from Office Manager positions through a series of conspiracies, petitions from non-black tax preparers and hostile working environments created by District 6 and Regional Managers - Region 53.

In some cases the same person working different locations launched an attack against a black male, and then the wimped managers, fearing an interruption of business, either fires, removes or lays-off the black manager. Some black managers are filing lawsuits while others simply wash their hands of the company not wishing to pile up legal bills.

When next you consider a tax preparation company in Houston -District 6, be aware of the hostile work environment for black males and no longer wonder why you do not see any in leadership positions.